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A shocking, sobering tale of life of the forgotten children of India will be the focus of Council’s latest author event with award-winning academic Gowrie Krishnan as she discusses her latest book, Shattered Shadows.

This event with Ms Krishnan will describe her journey as an author and her current book, on Saturday 22 June from 10am to 11am at Yeppoon Library.

Shattered Shadows follows the story of a young girl, Meena Sundram, trapped in an Indian brothel and her journey to find hope and freedom in a situation of misery of sadness.

Ms Krishnan said the book explored complex social issues that are a sad reality in some parts of the world.

“My reason for writing this particular novel was rooted from a deep-seated desire to raise awareness concerning real life issues, such as child prostitution and rape, especially the story of Jyoti Singh or ‘Nirbhaya’, a college girl who was sexually assaulted and killed by six men on a bus in India, on December 16, 2012,” Ms Krishnan said.

“This novel began as a desperate need to use prose as a cathartic release to address my personal heartache after having heard this story. The story and statistics on this issue rendered me shell-shocked. I began writing Shattered Shadows. Like the protestors who flocked to the streets screaming out for justice with their placards and marches all over the world, I protested with my pen.”

“These issues have continued to haunt me to date, which is why I have enrolled in a PhD to research the impact on Jyoti Singh’s case six years on in an effort to better understand the prevalence of this epidemic in India and hopefully offer some recommendations from the results of my research,” Ms Krishnan said.

Libraries, Arts and Culture Councillor Pat Eastwood encouraged aspiring authors and book lovers to come along and find out the processes behind novel writing.

“These events give residents a fantastic opportunity to get a unique insight into the author’s experience of their writing practices and story building techniques, and Council welcomes the community along to learn writing tips while also hearing about Ms Krishnan’s fascinating book,” Cr Eastwood said.